Andrew Whitehead's Blog

A handful of badges from my holiday - bought in the flea market at Pula, the onetime capital of Istria in Croatia. Lenin in the top row (and these Soviet badges were just a few pence each), Tito down below (only a shade more pricy). The one moderately costly badge was the hammer and sickle in a red star, which I think is an army cap badge.

I am not sure why the Soviet bloc, and Yugoslavia, were so abundant in their issuing of (usually fairly cheap and tacky) badges. I suppose it was about the Communist love of iconography, and probably disguised a profound sense of insecurity.